Alcohol like bourbon, wine, and beer contain phytoestrogens (estrogen-mimicking substances), which can raise your estrogen levels, worsening PCOS, endometriosis, and fibroid symptoms.
These findings suggest that red wine contains a higher content and/or biologically more active phytoestrogens than does bourbon. The effects of bourbon and red wine congeners on (A) uterus weight and (B) luteinizing hormone (LH) levels of rats whose ovaries had been removed.
Beer contains powerful compounds called “phytoestrogens” that mimic estrogen in the human body. In addition, many beers stimulate a hormone called prolactin–the same hormone that causes breast growth and milk production..
1. Red wine. Consuming phytoestrogen-rich foods and drinks like red wine in moderation (up to 5 ounces/148 milliliters a day for women of all ages) has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.
Alcohol can change the way a woman's body metabolizes estrogen (how estrogen works in the body). This can cause blood estrogen levels to rise. Estrogen levels are higher in women who drink alcohol than in non-drinkers [21]. Higher estrogen levels are in turn, linked to an increased risk of breast cancer [21].
“Drinking caffeine can increase estrogen levels in women, sometimes leading to an estrogen dominant state,” says Odelia Lewis, MD, a medical contributor to ABC News Medical Unit. “Estrogen dominance is associated with premenstrual syndrome, heavy periods, fibrocystic breasts, and even certain breast cancers.
Red Wine and the Risk of Breast Cancer
Doctors determined long ago that alcohol increases the body's estrogen levels, fostering the growth of cancer cells.
Body fat: Fat tissue (adipose tissue) secretes estrogen. Having a high percentage of body fat can lead to high estrogen levels. Stress: Your body produces the hormone cortisol in response to stress. Producing high amounts of cortisol in response to stress can deplete your body's ability to produce progesterone.
What foods cause high estrogen? Foods that reportedly increase estrogen include flax seeds, soybean products, chocolate, fruit, nuts, chickpeas, and legumes. Before we delve into why these foods are said to increase estrogen, we need to look at two important definitions; phytoestrogens and lignans.
Alcohol raises endogenous hormones (like estrogen and testosterone), which affects the growth of breast tissues and increases breast cancer risk. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 also increases with alcohol use and causes both breast tissue and breast cancer cells to grow.
Research consistently shows that drinking alcoholic beverages — beer, wine, and liquor — increases a woman's risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Alcohol can increase levels of estrogen and other hormones associated with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.
Alcohol consumption is known to affect the levels of oestrogen and progesterone significantly. Acute consumption of alcohol has been shown to increase oestrogen levels (2). Alcohol does this by slowing down the breakdown of oestrogen in your liver and upregulating the conversion of testosterone to oestrogen (3).
This study found that chemicals in red wine (from the skins and seeds of red grapes) slightly lowered estrogen levels among premenopausal women who drank 8 ounces of red wine nightly for about a month (1).
Beer contains phytoestrogen and prolactin. These two chemicals can increase the estrogen levels your body produces. If this happens too much, your body will react and decrease testosterone levels—which can put you at risk for low T.
Summary. High estrogen levels can cause symptoms such as irregular or heavy periods, weight gain, fatigue, and fibroids in females. In males, they can cause breast tissue growth, erectile dysfunction, and infertility.
Tomatoes, kiwi, citrus fruits, cantaloupe, peaches, artichokes, bananas, asparagus, corn and cauliflower all boast great levels of vitamin C and they possess the phytoestrogen power you might be looking for to boost your estrogen.
A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study involving postmenopausal, overweight, and obese women who took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for a year found that those whose vitamin D blood levels increased the most had the greatest reductions in blood estrogens, which are a known risk factor for breast cancer.
The hormonal peaks have been found to occur in the morning for progesterone, in the afternoon for FSH and LH, and during the night for oestradiol. These findings are unlikely to alter the time of day we order female reproductive hormone measurements.
Estrogen helps protect the heart from disease, potentially by maintaining higher levels of good cholesterol, called high-density lipoprotein (HDL), in your blood. Lower estrogen levels, especially during menopause, can increase your risk of developing heart disease.
This inhibition leads to a marked decrease in estrogen (estradiol and estrone) levels. Naturally occurring aromatase inhibitors include grapes, grape juice, and red, but not white wine. The aromatase inhibitory effects are attributed to wine phytochemicals and not to alcohol.
In the skin of red grapes is resveratrol, a chemical that works to block estrogen production. Along with acting as an antioxidant, resveratrol helps flush excess estrogen from the body.
The investigators concluded that red wine, but not white wine, was associated with significant effects on some indices of estrogen metabolism; free testosterone and luteinizing hormone were increased, but no significant differences were noted in estrogen levels.